A town council wants to buy an area of allotment land to safeguard its future for local gardeners.

Kirkbymoorside Allotments Association, formed in 1930, is a tenant of North Yorkshire County Council on land at Gillamoor Road.

There are more than 70 allotment plots on the site.

The association wants to buy the land - a move which was rejected by the council in February last year.

It was at one time thought it could be used for housing development, until it was ruled out by a planning inspector.

Now the association, in a report to Kirkbymoorside Town Council, said it wants to buy the land through compulsory purchase in its capacity as an allotments authority.

Sandra Doubtfire, the town clerk, said it had been decided to update the valuation of the land and to make a new approach to the county council in the hope it would agree to sell the allotments.

The Yorkshire Association of Local Councils has told allotment holders that for a compulsory purchase to go ahead, attempts must first be made to buy the land by agreement and that no alternative land is available for allotments.